Key events
Giles Richards’s report
And Lewis Hamilton speaks:
Big congratulations to Max, what a tough race that was. Obviously, we had the wrong call at the beginning which was so difficult.
I could see everyone pulling away and I could see on the screen that I was a minute down, and I thought that was kind of race over for us.
But I just kept my head down. The guys did a great job with the pit stops. Obviously, lots of tyre changes, lots of chasing.
And honestly, of all the years I’ve been here, this is the best race we’ve had here, but particularly because of this crowd. So, a big thank you to everyone.
Kimi Antonelli speaks:
I think today was the maximum we could have done, massive congrats to Max and Red Bull for their incredible weekend.
On our side, work to do but happy to come away with P2. Hopefully we will come back in the future to Malaysia.
Max Verstappen speaks:
It’s a really nice one [win] after the year we’ve had and the progression we have made. I’m incredibly proud of everyone. Just super nice to win here.
It was very hectic with a lot of different things at the start – no power [on the first formation lap in the rain] because you have to wait for the power to kick in.
We made the right call with the intermediates. After that, step by step we moved out way forward.
From there, once we could do our own race then we had the Safety Car but we kept it all under control.
Verstappen finally has his first win of the season, while Antonelli leaves with an even bigger championship lead after a race that threatened to change everything. For Russell, though, it was absolute heartbreak, with his late retirement dealing a huge blow to his title hopes.
Hamilton and Ferrari may have got their tyre calls badly wrong, but somehow they still walk away with a double result in third and fourth – a remarkable recovery given how the strategy unfolded.
And there is still some business to settle after the chequered flag. Albon and Norris are both facing post-race investigations for allegedly driving erratically, so the final classification could yet change.
Verstappen wins a chaotic Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia
Max Verstappen has done it again. The last time F1 raced in Malaysia, back in 2017, it was Verstappen who stood on the top step – and nine years later, he has repeated the feat.
Verstappen holds off championship leader Kimi Antonelli to take victory after a race that had absolutely everything: rain, Safety Cars, strategic gambles, late drama and a frantic final few laps. It is also Red Bull’s first Grand Prix victory of the season.
Kimi Antonelli comes in second and Lewis Hamilton – what a day he has had – rounds out the podium.
Lap 54/55: Antonelli is now more than a second behind Verstappen, but cannot afford to ease off too much – Hamilton is lurking behind and would love the chance to put the championship leader under pressure.
Further back, Leclerc is all over Hadjar in the fight for fourth. And there it is! Leclerc makes the move into Turn 1 and gets past Hadjar.
Lap 53/55: Russell’s retirement and Norris’ earlier off have shuffled the order once again, with Alonso now up to eighth. Norris has already recovered one position, getting past Lindblad to move back into the points.
Hulkenberg is up to ninth but is under serious pressure as the laps tick away. He will have to defend for his life if he is to hold on to that position.
Up front, Verstappen remains comfortably in the lead, but there is a change behind him. Hamilton makes his move on Hadjar down the main straight and takes P3.
Lap 52/55: Verstappen times the restart perfectly, launching away from the Safety Car and immediately opening a gap to Antonelli. It was a smart move from the Dutchman, while Antonelli understandably takes a more cautious approach after seeing Russell retire.
There is plenty going on behind, too. Lawson and Piastri are battling it out, with the McLaren struggling for grip on the hard tyres.
Lap 50/55: Norris is not allowed to regain those positions under the Safety Car, so he drops back to P11. He can count himself fortunate, too, with Stroll showing plenty of sportsmanship by allowing him back on to the track after the off. Norris was caught out as the frontrunners backed up behind the stricken Russell, leaving him with nowhere to go and sending him on to the gravel.
Speaking of Russell, the marshals are now pushing his Mercedes away from the track.
Lap 50/55: With the field still behind the Safety Car, Russell suddenly pulls over on the main straight. At almost the same moment, Norris slides off into the gravel.
Russell immediately puts his hands on his helmet. If this is a retirement, it could be devastating for his championship hopes. And now Russell is climbing out of the car. His race is over, and with the Mercedes stopped on track, the race cannot restart just yet. Mercedes are reporting a power-unit issue, and this could prove hugely costly in the championship fight.
Lap 49/55: Perez has now caught up with the pack and successfully unlapped himself.
Hopefully, we won’t have to wait much longer before the Safety Car comes in and we can finally get this race back underway.
Lap 48/55: The lapped cars are finally being released, with Sainz the first to get the call to unlap himself.
Sainz was caught in the middle of the lead pack, so it appears Race Control is not waiting for the entire field to bunch up before clearing the lapped traffic. Perez and Bortoleto have also been given permission to unlap themselves, although neither has reached the main pack just yet.
Lap 47/55: The Safety Car remains on track as marshals continue working to clear Albon’s stranded Williams.
Once the car is safely removed, attention will turn to the lapped drivers. They have not yet been released, with the field still needing to bunch up before Race Control can allow them to unlap themselves.
Lap 46/55: The full Safety Car is now out, with a tractor required to recover Albon’s stranded Williams.
That changes things once again. Piastri is the only frontrunner to stay out initially, but he eventually comes in, with Norris also making his stop. Both McLarens emerge behind Leclerc, leaving the field bunched up once again with just nine laps remaining.
Lap 45/55: Mercedes have made a huge call – both Antonelli and Russell are being brought into the pits.
The VSC was expected to last longer because Albon’s car could not be pushed clear and was instead going to have to be lifted away. Mercedes clearly decided that the track position was not worth sacrificing the tyre advantage.
Lap 44/55: Antonelli and Russell have both opted to stay out. Verstappen, meanwhile, has emerged from his stop between the two Mercedes drivers and is now running on used softs.
Lap 43/55: Albon is officially out; his gearbox has failed. Fortunately, he has managed to pull up right beside a gap in the barriers, allowing the marshals to begin recovering the car. The Virtual Safety Car is deployed as a result.
Verstappen pits from the lead, while Antonelli stays out.
Lap 43/55: Albon appears to have stopped on track.
Lap 42/55: Hulkenberg makes another move stick, getting past Lindblad as those soft tyres continue to deliver serious pace.
Further up the order, Hadjar is putting on a defensive masterclass. Hamilton is piling on the pressure, but the Racing Bulls driver is doing everything he can to keep the Ferrari behind.
Lap 41/55: Alonso has a big moment with Lindblad, with the two coming dangerously close to making contact. Somehow, they avoid each other – and Alonso gets the job done, moving through into P10 on merit.
Hulkenberg is up to P12 and looking increasingly quick on the soft tyres. He is closing in on Lindblad.
Lap 40/55: Hamilton’s mediums are finally starting to come alive, and he has closed to within a second of the Red Bull ahead.
Lap 39/55: Just as we were praising Aston Martin, Hulkenberg has arrived on the scene and has already picked off Stroll and is now making his move on Ocon.
He is running the soft tyres, and they are clearly working well for him. Bortoleto has also made his stop and served the time penalty he picked up earlier.
Lap 38/55: Alonso is closing in on a potential point, with the Aston Martin driver just behind Lindblad on the same five-lap-old hard tyres. The gap is less than a second.
Further back, Ocon has Stroll right on his tail, with just 0.4sec between the two.
Lap 35/55: Hamilton is not impressed with his latest tyre choice. He is running used mediums and says over the radio that they feel terrible and that he does not want to use them all the way to the flag. Piastri has gone for another set of new hard tyres.
Hulkenberg is under investigation for an unsafe release.
Lap 34/55: Here they come – the race leader and his closest challenger head into the pits. Verstappen takes another set of soft tyres, which comes as little surprise given how well they have worked for him so far. Antonelli follows suit for Mercedes, also opting for the softs.
Behind them, Hamilton is all over the back of Hadjar and piling on the pressure, while Piastri comes into the pits.
Lap 33/55: Russell is the latest frontrunner to make his stop, with Mercedes calling him in from P3. He bolts on a set of soft tyres, with the team clearly hoping to cover off the threat from Hadjar and the charging Hamilton behind.
Lap 32/55: The top three have settled into their positions for now, with sizeable gaps separating Verstappen, Antonelli and Russell.
Further back, the pit-stop action is ramping up. Hadjar has been called into the pits, with Racing Bulls reacting to the threat from Hamilton and the Ferrari driver comes in at the same time.
Lap 31/55: Ocon pitted last time around, but it was far from a clean stop. He ran wide on to the grass on the approach to the pit lane. He has dropped down to P14 as a result, but will be hoping the drivers ahead still have to make their stops. If they do, Ocon could yet find himself back inside the top 10 once the pit-stop cycle plays out.
Lap 29/55: Verstappen’s advantage now up to 8.8sec over Antonelli. The Mercedes driver has a further 4.1sec in hand over Russell. Hadjar is hanging on to fourth, 7.7sec behind Russell, with Hamilton another 7.8sec further back.
Lap 28/55: Apologies, had some connection issues a la Hamilton but back on. In the midfield, Lawson continues to impress for Racing Bulls, holding on to sixth despite Lindblad slipping out of the top 10 as the faster frontrunners recover the positions they lost earlier.
Ocon is also enjoying a strong afternoon for Haas in ninth – exactly the sort of scrappy, unpredictable race where he tends to thrive.
It has been a more frustrating day for Alpine. Their initial tyre calls at the start have not worked out, leaving both cars down the order. Williams can count themselves unlucky too. Both cars made strong starts and appeared to be on the right tyres for the conditions, only for Sainz’s race to be effectively ruined by his earlier collision.
Lap 22/55: The big question now is just how long Verstappen can stretch his soft tyres. He has extended his lead over Antonelli to 4.9sec, but tyre life could become a major factor as the race progresses.
Hamilton is already reporting that his rear tyres are beginning to go; his tyres have been running for 22 laps, compared with just 12 laps for Verstappen’s softs.
Antonelli, meanwhile, is on the mediums and should be able to run considerably longer into the race.
Lap 21/55: Verstappen is beginning to disappear up the road, extending his advantage to 4.2sec at the front.
Behind him, Antonelli has made his move on Russell for second. The championship leader went for it into Turn 4, and while Russell put up a fight, he ultimately allowed his teammate through without too much resistance.
Lap 19/55: Antonelli is closing rapidly on Russell and is now just one second behind his Mercedes teammate. “I have more pace,” comes the message from the Italian – a polite way of saying he wants to be let through.
Lap 18/55: Lindblad is clinging on to seventh on the hard tyres, but he has plenty of pressure behind him with Piastri and Hamilton both closing in.
The Racing Bulls driver will have his hands full trying to keep the pair behind, particularly with Hamilton still having plenty of race pace in reserve.
Stewards are looking at the incident during the restart involving Bortoleto and Sainz. We have yet to see exactly what happened.
Lap 17/55: Verstappen is beginning to stretch his legs at the front, with the Red Bull now 2.1sec clear of Russell. The Mercedes is another 1.5sec ahead of championship leader Antonelli in third.
Antonelli will be relieved that Hadjar has been unable to make any real progress from fourth on the soft tyres. Lawson is in fifth on the hard tyres.
Lap 15/55: There is still a long way to go, but Verstappen leads Russell at the front, and Red Bull have looked strongest in the dry and wet conditions so far. That could be a worrying sign for the rest of the field as the race develops.
Russell has opened up a 1.1sec gap to Antonelli, who needs to regroup after that difficult restart and keep his championship rival within reach.
Further back, some of the frontrunners who started towards the rear are beginning to make their way through the field. Norris is climbing again, while Hamilton is also starting to make progress – up to P11.
Lap 14/55: Sainz has dropped all the way down to P18, a spin on the soft tyres looks the most likely explanation.
Up at the front, Verstappen has reclaimed the lead, while Russell has now moved ahead of his championship rival Antonelli.
Lap 13/55: Verstappen leads after restart after tight battles in Turn 1 and 2. Russell gets by Antonelli too, who is starting to stop-start a bit.
Lap 12/55: Safety Car is coming in at the end of this lap after Bottas’ car was cleared.
Lap 11/55: Hamilton only driver yet to pit. Safety Car remains out for now.
Lap 10/55: Antonelli and Russell has swapped to the mediums, as has Russell. Verstappen is in the softs.
Lap 10/55: Safety Car comes out after Bottas drives in the gravel. Everyone uses the opportunity to switch from inters.
Lap 9/55: Antonelli goes wide through the final corner but he just manages to hold on to the lead despite Verstappen trying to get through. Hulkenberg pits for softs.
Lap 8/55: Verstappen 0.7sec behind Antonelli. Russell says track seems to be retaining water. Leclerc has been noted for driving into Hulkenberg.
